Landmark poker machine reforms delayed by years, angering anti-gambling advocates
Landmark reforms to make poker machines safer for Victorian punters have been delayed by years by the Allan government, a decision that has infuriated colleagues and gambling reformers.
Former premier Daniel Andrews made a shock policy announcement in 2023 to force all punters to preset how much they were willing to lose before playing the pokies — the scheme is often known as "carded play" or "mandatory precommitment".
A bill to give the government the power to set up carded play was introduced to the parliament last November, with a trial to be held in 40 venues for three months beginning in the middle of this year.
But that deadline has passed.
Crown Casino was forced to implement carded play on its 2,400 pokies following the royal commission into its behaviour.
As a result, pokies losses have decreased at the casino and it has been held up as a beacon of responsible gambling by some of the casino's once-fiercest critics, including Tim Costello.
The legislation to set up a statewide scheme passed the lower house, but the government is yet to bring on a debate in the upper house, despite having the votes needed to pass the laws.
The ABC understands that the government will debate the bill in the coming two weeks of parliament, under a plan that will defer the statewide scheme until well after the 2026 election.
A trial will still need to be held to find the appropriate technology and to test the scheme.
That decision is reflected in this week's state budget, with Treasury banking on pokies taxes continuing to flow to state coffers without interruption.
Last year, the state collected $1.4 billion in pokies taxes — that is forecast to grow to $1.5 billion by 2028-29.
Had the state planned to implement carded play, the tax take would have dropped.
When the bill was first introduced late last year, a trial was slated to begin in May.
On Wednesday, Premier Jacinta Allan said negotiations in the upper house were continuing.
"We are committed to those reforms,'' Ms Allan said.
The laws have the support of the Greens, Animal Justice Party and the Legalise Cannabis party, meaning they could pass the upper house without major negotiation.
Reverand Costello from the Alliance for Gambling Reform has urged the premier to act, saying pokies are the most harmful form of gambling.
"They are literally the crack cocaine of gambling,'' he said.
"The cashless card at Crown pokies is working to prevent harm and Labor promised the public to trial and implement this card to all pub and Club and pub pokies.
The Coalition is opposed to the scheme, citing concerns from the Australian Hotels Association.
Greens MP Katherine Copsey said the party hoped Labor was not planning to capitulate to the pokies lobby.
"That would be unconscionable by Labor. The Greens are ready to work with Labor to pass this pokies reform right now. We have the numbers in parliament, so what are Labor waiting for?" she said.
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Sam Hawley: Breaking up can be hard and fascinating to watch from afar. So where is the disintegration of the relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk up to now? Today, Geoff Kabaservice from the centre-right think tank, the Niskanen Center, on the real-world consequences of the split and whether there's any chance of reconciliation between the President and the billionaire. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Donald Trump, US President: I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot. People leave my administration, some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile. I don't know what it is, it's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it. News report: Within hours of his Oval Office comments, their once-close relationship had disintegrated. The world's richest man firing back in a barrage of hostile posts on X. 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Donald Trump, US President: I've been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran, working on so many, I'm not thinking about Elon. Geoff Kabaservice: This is a breakdown that I've been predicting for a while. I can at least say that I was correct in foreseeing that egos this Titanic could not comfortably coexist for long on the same team. But you know, Elon Musk has considerable cards, shall we say, because he is, as we've said, the world's richest man. He actually has a number of businesses that are critical to how government and the world works. Just as an example, SpaceX has under its umbrella Starlink, which does I think 80% of satellite communications launches in this country. It had a material impact on the outcome of the Ukraine war and the conduct of that war. And, you know, Elon Musk also controls a very important social media platform. It is as though he were the head of, let's say, the Washington Post 50 years ago. 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Certainly, SpaceX would be the most vulnerable to that kind of Trumpian threat because they get something on the order of $20 billion a month from the federal government. And in many ways, Trump's threat, it would really matter, would not just be to withhold funds from SpaceX, but actually to nationalise it. And Steve Bannon, who is in so many ways Elon Musk's antagonist, has actually called for Trump to do just that. And there's a real argument that somebody who does so much of the United States rocketry business, who has such an incredible sway over its Starlink and satellite apparatus, who in many ways is almost a sovereign entity at this point, you could make a real argument that nationalisation of SpaceX should happen. And I'm sure you would actually find a lot of Democrats supporting that motion as well. Sam Hawley: Trump could also suspend his security clearances, right? Which would make life somewhat difficult. Geoff Kabaservice: You know, Trump in extremis could even deport Elon Musk, who after all is from another place, shall we say. Sam Hawley: Yeah. And Steve Bannon, a former advisor to Trump, he's actually raised that, hasn't he? Geoff Kabaservice: He has indeed. Sam Hawley: That Donald Trump should investigate the immigration status of Elon Musk, even though, of course, he is an American citizen. Geoff Kabaservice: Right. Sam Hawley: Well, of course, the stoush also did send Tesla stocks plummeting, Geoff. So that's another way, I suppose. This could harm Elon's business operations. And also Trump could tighten regulations, couldn't he, to make it harder for Elon to do business? Geoff Kabaservice: Sure. You know, it's been interesting to see the way the narrative has shifted over the last several months since Elon Musk came aboard. When Elon invested something on the order of $250 million in the 2024 political campaigns, which included not just Trump's election, but also a number of other Republican candidacies in Congress and elsewhere, this seemed like actually a remarkably astute payoff because Elon Musk's personal net worth soared in the first few months. But, you know, there's been incredible pushback, even from some Republicans, against the Doge project of cutting the government that Elon Musk has engaged in. And Elon never quite seemed sure as to what his purpose was in helming that Doge effort. Was it to just help Trump extract political payback against woke enemies and the so-called deep state? Or was it actually to try to genuinely cut the deficit or make government work more efficiently? You know, the blow up between Musk and Trump got its start when Elon started criticising the Republican budget bill, which truly is a fiscally incontinent budget buster, which will add something on the order of over $3 trillion to debt. News report: Tech billionaire Elon Musk has issued a blistering criticism of US President Donald Trump's spending bill. News report: He has said that I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. Geoff Kabaservice: So, you know, there's a lot of things that are going wrong in the Trump-Musk relationship in the ways that they're not seeing each other eye to eye. And Elon is not very political. So in that sense, Trump could actually have the upper hand on him and could make his life difficult in many ways. And, you know, since you mentioned Tesla, you know, Tesla's stock has really cratered in recent months. People on the left really don't want to be associated with Elon Musk, but the right has never gone in for electric vehicles in the first place. And even Donald Trump's shilling for Teslas on the White House lawn hasn't really done much to encourage people on the right to buy Teslas. And one would imagine that they will be even less willing to do that now. Sam Hawley: Yeah. And Donald Trump, of course, says he's going to sell his Tesla. I wonder if this might be better for Tesla, then Elon might have somewhat of a recovery when it comes to Tesla if he's not so closely associated with Donald Trump. Geoff Kabaservice: It's kind of amusing. Like I said, this is this sandbox, quarrel of these two extremely powerful men flinging poo at each other. But, you know, let's not forget that the United States is no longer the world's unquestioned superpower. It no longer, in some sense, has the luxury to actually engage in this kind of infantile are facing a serious technological threat from China, which undoubtedly will translate into global mastery of some kind. And frankly, Elon Musk's Tesla is also losing shares not just because of politics, but because it's actually lost the technological edge to some of these other Chinese companies. And the same is true of a number of critical technology areas where the United States is almost visibly falling behind China. And certainly our manufacturing capability, we've now been dwarfed by China, which is why Tesla does so much of its manufacturing in China. So one hopes that cooler heads are going to prevail. And I strongly suspect that both Trump and Musk are looking for ways to back down from this feud. But that doesn't mean that the political alliance that existed between them can be resurrected. Sam Hawley: Yeah. I was going to say, is there a way back from the brink? And if there isn't, who do you think will be the ultimate winner of this stoush, the billionaire or the president? Geoff Kabaservice: Oh, that's awfully hard to say because it's not clear what winning would look like here. I mean, at the end of the day, Elon will still have more money than any human being has had in history, as well as however many children he wants to have, however many consorts he wants to have. One suspects Elon will be fine. And at the end of the day, Donald Trump will still be president as well. And it's unlikely that the Republican Party is going to get out from under his brand of populism anytime soon, whether or not he chooses to run for a third term in 2028, despite the constitutional prohibition on that happening. So it's hard to say who is actually going to come out winners, you know, but I think there's a fair case to be made that they were stronger together than they will be apart, and that they will never quite wield the same power and influence or even be able to affect the cultural vibes in quite the same way. Sam Hawley: Geoff Kabaservice is from the Niskanen Center, a centre right think tank based in Washington episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Adair Sheppard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley, thanks for listening.
